Bob Mullen: Painted silhouettes
Another of our ideas was to go down to major military airports and paint black "Silhouettes" on the ground as if aircraft were parked on the runways. Russian satellites flying over would see the black paint spots and conclude that we had aircraft with full stealth capability or that we had moved the aircraft into hangers so they could not be seen from space.
In an MSN article dated October 1st, 2023
Russia is painting decoy Tu-95 strategic bombers on the tarmac of its main bomber air base, report says
- © Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP
- Russia is painting silhouettes of its valuable Tu-95 strategic bombers on the tarmac of an air base.
- The decoys could be an attempt to confuse possible Ukrainian strikes, The War Zone reported.
- But they are easy to spot even on commercially available satellite imagery.
Russia is painting the silhouettes of its prized Tu-95MS strategic bombers at its main bomber base as a decoy, a report says.
Satellite imagery obtained by The War Zone shows the two-dimensional painted decoys on the tarmac of Engels-2, a strategic bomber base east of Saratov in Russia.
The War Zone noted that the pictured decoys might be made with a cloth or canvas, but it said paint was most likely given the lack of dimension seen in the images taken on September 29 by Planet Labs.
An image of decoys can be seen here.
Russia has been known to attempt makeshift defenses of its bombers at the base, previously using car tires to shield its Tu-95s.
The newly pictured decoys appear to also have what looks like car tires depicted on them, suggesting that they have tried hard to make them appear realistic.
Recommended video: Russia Covers Tu-95 Strategic Bombers With Car Tires Amid Drone Attacks (Newsweek) Current Time 0:01 / Duration 0:49 0 View on Watch View on Watch The Engels air base has come under attack several times since the conflict in Ukraine began, despite being deep in Russian territory, hundreds of miles southeast of Moscow.
Russia blamed the attacks on Ukraine, but Kyiv did not claim them, keeping in line with its policy to not claim attacks on Russian soil. The decoy paintings at Engels-2 could be aimed at confusing any possible Ukrainian strike operations or drone operators.
However, The War Zone notes that they are unlikely to be effective, given that it is easy to spot as fake even in commercially available satellite imagery.
The use of infrared reflective or absorptive paints could confuse weapons like cruise missiles, but it's unclear how effective the two-dimensional decoys will be, the outlet said.